020-11 Wyo. Code R. §§ 11-6 - Voluntary Irrevocable Assigned Trusts

(a) All coal permits and licenses are eligible for a voluntary irrevocable assigned trust.

(b) An operator may file an application with the Department for a permit or license specific voluntary irrevocable assigned trust managed by the state treasurer for the benefit of the Department. Funds from the assigned trust shall only be available to the department to cover the cost of completing reclamation in the event of forfeiture.

(c) The assigned trust may bond all or a portion of the full cost of reclamation of a permit or license as determined by the annual Director's Bond Letter (DBL). The operator shall provide other acceptable bonding instruments for any portion of the approved reclamation cost estimate that is not covered by the assigned trust.

(d) Voluntary irrevocable assigned trusts shall be in accordance with the following:

(i) Application forms will be provided by the Department for enrollment and shall include:

(A) A reclamation cost estimate for the permit or license. The estimate shall be determined by the current Director's Bond Letter. Permits or licenses with Underground Injection Control (UIC) bond requirements that are pledged to the Water Quality Division shall be bonded with an alternative acceptable bond instrument;

(B) An estimate of the remaining life of mine and reclamation operations as disclosed in the current annual report for the permit or license;

(C) A proposed amount of the initial deposit to the trust. In no case shall the initial and subsequent deposits in the first year be less than one percent of the total annual reclamation cost estimate as disclosed in the current DBL;

(D) A proposed schedule of annual payments;

(E) Approval from federal agencies for permits or licenses that include federal lands with a federal bonding requirement.

(ii) For each approved voluntary assigned trust:

(A) The department shall provide the state treasurer with a copy of the DBL that discloses the reclamation cost estimate and the estimated remaining life of mine and reclamation operations annually;

(B) Participants shall provide annual payments of not less than one percent of the total annual reclamation cost estimate until the assigned trust is fully funded;

(C) Participants shall provide other acceptable bonding instruments as noted in Section 2 of this chapter to cover the remaining full cost of reclamation until such time as the voluntary assigned trust is fully funded;

(D) Funds received by the Department shall be invested by the state treasurer as authorized by law. The funds shall be invested in a manner that preserves one hundred percent of the corpus;

(E) Earnings from investment of the corpus of the assigned trust shall be credited by the state treasurer to the balance of each voluntary assigned trust;

(F) The Department shall provide a statement of account as defined by the treasurer annually at the end of the fiscal year; and

(G) Bond reductions to the permit or license shall be made from any other bond instruments first until the assigned trust is fully funded.

(e) Assigned trust withdrawals.

(i) No funds shall be withdrawn by the participant from the assigned trust account during the first year after the date of establishment of the assigned trust;

(ii) Assets from the assigned trust may only be withdrawn after complete funding of the trust;

(iii) Funds from the assigned trust shall be withdrawn last after any approved alternative reclamation bonding instruments have been released by the Department;

(iv) The assigned trust may not be substituted by another bonding instrument;

(v) Funds from the assigned trust shall only be released following certification of the requested bond release by the director per the provisions of W.S. 35-11-423 or in the event of bond forfeiture under W.S. § 35-11-421;

(vi) The assets of each assigned trust shall only be available to the Department to cover the cost of completing reclamation in the event of forfeiture; and

(vii) Once the assigned trust fully funded and the balance is in excess of the reclamation costs the operator may request a release of the excess funds using forms provided by the Department and state treasurer.

(f) Assigned trust transfers.

(i) Assets from the assigned trust may be transferred to a new eligible operator upon approval of a permit or license transfer in accordance with W.S. § 35-11-408.

(ii) Assigned trust transfer requirements shall include:

(A) The assigned trust may not be substituted and shall be transferred along with the permit transfer if the estimated life of mine is equal to five years or less; and

(B) All expenses and penalties associated with the transfer of the assigned trust are the responsibility of the license or permit holder.

(iii) Upon the application for a permit or license transfer no funds in the assigned trust shall be released to either the transferor or transferee until a final decision on the transfer application is made by Department.

(iv) Double bonding shall not be required for any reclamation costs of the permit or license covered by assigned trust funds, however the proposed transferee shall provide additional acceptable bond instruments for that portion of the reclamation costs not covered by the assigned trust prior to the transfer of the permit or license. Bond instruments shall be released to the transferor at the time of acceptance of the transferee's bond instruments and approval of the permit or license transfer.

Notes

020-11 Wyo. Code R. §§ 11-6

Amended, Eff. 5/3/2019. Amended, Eff. 4/26/2023.